The Bad of Defining Religion

Within society, there are many definitions of religion. It serves many purposes in one’s life, and it is common that different people claim that that means something different to them than it does to their friends and family. These different purposes are what make religion vital aspects of one’s life; it contributes to culture. Because everyone views and acts upon religion differently, religion plays a large role in every aspect of culture. Mere belief in a higher power is the most minor part in religion. Defining religion is a near-impossible task, and that is okay. This absence of definition allows everyone to define it in their own way. An individual’s religious turmoil can cause them to question the weight of their religion. As seen through Arlen in Answer Man, religion is confusing for society as a whole and individuals because it is not simply defined.

In the beginning of the movie Answer Man, the viewers are introduced to the novel Me and God by Arlen Faber. The people in Philadelphia hold him as the omniscient man that has had a one-on-one encounter with God himself in Heaven. They respect him as an insightful Christian, but in reality, he is simply trying to hear from God. Kris, the local bookseller that Arlen wants to sell all of his spiritual books is a recovering alcoholic that discovers Arlen’s true identity as the author of Me and God, and he leans to him to answer his difficult life questions that pertain to a higher power guiding and protecting mankind. As he falls in love with Elizabeth and her son Alex, he begins to open up to his struggles that he has combated for 20 years. To him, the Christian religion is confusing and difficult, and he wrote the book to answer for himself his own questions about God. In the end of the movie, Arlen confesses to the people at his first-ever live speaking that God did not give him the answers to the questions in his novel because he made them up. The omniscient religious author is actually an individual struggling with his own identity in the Christian religion. 

Due to the ease of the answers Arlen wrote, his novel gives the readers the hope that religion is definable and always equally valuable for each and every person. As Sean McCloud states, “the concept of religion can easily become tied to a set doctrine, scripted practices, and an institution that controls such things” (McCloud 16). By writing a relatable, welcoming novel about religion, Arlen presents religion as simple and easily obtainable. While it can be, religion is not simply believing certain facts. Religion, instead, is “amalgams of practices and ideas pieced together by individuals in certain contexts” (16). The cut and dry answers that Arlen created set a restriction on religion- one based on his own understanding and purposes of his Christian faith. The beliefs Arlen stumbles upon keep him from letting religion expand into meaning more in his life. Frustration in the responses he anticipates from God blur his trust in the belief system, which further limits his understanding. By writing a novel as if he knows all about God and the Christian faith, he creates his own understanding that is full of the “perfect” philosophical responses. When intercepted by society, his book relays the message that religion can be defined as the simple belief system and personal communication with the god of the religion. While that is true and important, religion overflows into so many more aspects of life that vary amongst individuals. 

When everyone lives a different life, religion brings different things to different people. Through the sharing of Arlen’s book describing religion in his life and his polar opposite lifestyle, Answer Man presents the dangers of publicly limiting religion and how that affects society as a whole. Sean McCloud states “the process of ordering the messiness of what scholars and practitioners describe as religion by narrowing it to being primarily a belief system conceals more than it reveals” (21). Allowing one’s life in relation to religion to define religion, even if it is a different definition from others’, instead of defining religion without the real-life aspect creates room for personalization and claim within a culture. Broadening the publicized definition of religion allows everyone to determine for themselves what role religion will play in their lives.